1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the delivery of media content, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for customized billboard advertisements as they would appear on a website in a media asset and content distribution system that provides individual level micro marketing using rights and sales contract management systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the exponentially increasing use of the Internet, websites have evolved and developed many different mechanisms to increase profit. One primary mechanism utilized is that of web based advertising. Web based advertising often involves the delivery of a web page that automatically retrieves an advertisement from an advertiser and displays the advertisement to the user. However, the issue arises as to which advertiser to use and which advertisement to display to a given user.
In addition to traditional web based advertising and marketing, many media studios (e.g., FOX™) maintain a vast library of content that can potentially be digitally delivered to a licensed customer. Such customers may utilize a website to efficiently enable the search and delivery of such content (see the related applications incorporated by reference above). It is desirable to advertise particular assets/content on the website and to customize such content. Prior art systems fail to provide the ability to customize advertisements and content based on various settings. To better understand the invention, a detailed description of media content and prior art delivery systems may be useful.
Many types and pieces of information or media content may be utilized as part of the broadcast, advertisement, and sale of such content. For example, content from a content provider (e.g., a studio such as FOX™) may include:                Over 2,500 Feature Films; over 14,000 Television Series, Seasons & Episodes; and over 1,000 Specials, Movies of the Week & MiniSeries;        Over 100,000 images: Production Stills, Logos, Artwork, Gallery & Episodic Photos;        Over 12,000 Scripts & over 10,000 Music Cue Sheets;        Over 7,300 trailers and other promotional videos;        Over 2,500 episodes for screening;        Over 9,300 broadcast quality files, representing over 700 episodes; and        Over 1,000 broadcast quality promotional videos (Television spots, etc.).        
Prior art techniques used to fulfill its customer's requests for advertising and publicity materials required the physical distribution of such materials on physical paper—e.g., slides and transparencies, ad-slicks (camera-ready advertisements of varying sizes that are used in print media such as newspapers and magazines), scripts and music cue sheets. Slides would be duplicated at a photo lab & scripts would be photocopied. The materials would then be boxed up & shipped out to customers such as international broadcasters. These boxes would often get held up at customs, or the materials would be misplaced by the customer—adding to the expense of both time and money.
To overcome some of the prior art problems, websites have been developed where customers were able to download advertising & publicity materials (referred to as assets) needed whenever (and as often) as necessary. Instead of slides, customers downloaded JPGs; instead of paper scripts, downloadable PDFs were available. Written information like synopses, cast & crew biographies, awards, and press quotes were also available on such web sites (e.g., FOXFAST™).
Security mechanisms may also exist on such prior art web sites. Such security mechanisms included password-protection that was tied into a studio's television distribution sales system so customers were only given access to materials for the television series & films that the customer currently licensed from the particular studio. However, such a limited system would not allow the customer to view all of the assets available for the customer to license. In this regard, a television distribution sales group is continuously selling titles from a studio's entire catalog, and since customers can only see titles they already licensed in prior art websites, the need for an overall comprehensive catalog site was desirable.
To overcome such problems, a non-password protected catalog website (e.g., FOXNOW™) was developed in the prior art to showcase all titles (e.g., features, television series, specials, movies of the week, mini series, etc.) available from a particular entity. Such a prior art website provided the ability to search assets using a variety of criteria including actor, award, box office, genre, and synopsis key words (e.g. all titles about ‘baseball’).
In addition to the above websites, a further website (e.g., FOXSCREENING™) was developed in the prior art to allow customers to screen television shows and movies without waiting for a digital video disc (DVD) (and saving the costs of burning and shipping such discs as well). Such screening was viewed as a desirable pre-sales tool. Digital rights management (DRM) was used in such prior art websites to protect the content from unauthorized viewing and piracy.
However, for a media content owner to efficiently and easily deliver pre-sales and sold content to a customer while allowing a customer to easily and efficiently browse all content and receive such content was not provided by the above prior art systems. Instead, customers were forced to utilize multiple websites for different purposes and media content owners did not have the flexibility to easily manage, sample, and deliver such content to both prospective and actual customers. In addition, prior art systems failed to provide the ability to digitally deliver broadcast quality digital files. Instead the prior art required the duplication of a tape and the shipping of the tape overseas.
Thus, the prior art had many problems and deficiencies including:                massive distribution costs to create and ship tapes;        recurring and substantial sunk costs caused by the cost to manage physical media;        product that can leak to the internet prior to a local market telecast;        content leaks that can impact the perceived value of a product;        accelerated demand to ship, schedule, and broadcast programs internationally on the heels of U.S. broadcasts;        greater attention to physically manage higher content volumes against increasingly intense deadlines based on the accelerated demand to air products; and        lack of ability to customize advertising such content on a single website.        
Accordingly, what is needed is an online digital delivery system using a singular comprehensive easy-to-use website that provides the capability to: advertise content in a customized manner; search a media content owner's film and television series catalog; access and download marketing and publicity assets; screen movies, episodes, and promotional videos; and deliver broadcast quality digital files. Thus, rather than duplicating a tape and shipping it overseas, it is desirable to provide a customer with the ability to download a file and ingest the file directly into existing broadcast server workflows. Further, it is desirable to quickly transition from physical tape delivery to digital delivery for both television series and feature films.